reengineering

Case Study Taco Bell, under new CEO John Martin, engaged in a major reengineering effort in the early 1980s. Martin initiated changes to increase the quality of the firm's offerings and reduce the time spent on food preparation and paperwork. One initiative, called the “K-Minus Program," created a system in which food was prepared in central commissaries and shipped to kitchenless (hence, the term K-minus) restaurants. The commissaries cooked the meat, ground the beans, and chopped the cheese and vegetables (other than tomatoes) that were shipped prepacked to the restaurants. The reengineering allowed the firm to improve the quality of its products, reduce employee accidents (no chopping), save on preparation time, and reduce store space devoted to kitchen activities. One report indicated the K-Minus Program saved Taco Bell $7 million per year. The firm was able to grow its sales from $500 million in 1982 to $3 billion ten years later.